Local students create videos to promote agriculture

Saturday

Jan 22, 2011 at 5:51 PM

FAYETTEVILLE, — Twelve agricultural science students at Conway High School and six from Greenbrier High School are promoting agriculture through short videos posted on YouTube, which they created with the assistance of University of Arkansas agricultural communications faculty members and students who brought a mobile communications classroom to the school.

The mobile classroom is equipped to teach videography, video editing and multimedia applications. It was developed with a grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture in cooperation with the U A System’s Division of Agriculture and Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences on the Fayetteville campus.

Agricultural Communications Assistant Professor Leslie Edgar said UA department of agricultural and extension education faculty and staff developed curriculum on photography, writing and videography for use in high school agricultural science classes. The students applied skills learned in their classes to create three to five minute videos about agriculture.

UA faculty and students traveled with the mobile classroom to the school and spent the day helping students complete their videos. The completed videos can be seen on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/AEEDVisual.

The program provides an opportunity for high school students to learn about career opportunities in agriculture through interactions with UA faculty and students, Edgar said.

"We are excited to offer this opportunity to all interested agricultural science programs in Arkansas, Edgar said. We believe this program will provide better visibility for agriculture and our state through hands-on learning using technologies native to high school students."

The Visual Communications on the Road in Arkansas: Video and Photo Creative Projects to Promote Agriculture program will travel to 12 additional schools in the next six months. Any Arkansas high school agricultural science teacher can include visual communications curriculum into their courses. Curriculum is located at http://aeed.uark.edu/5422.htm.

For more information, contact Leslie Edgar at (479) 575-6770 or via e-mail at ledgar@uark.edu.

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